■ In 1969, the Senate voted down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement F. Haynsworth, 55-45, the first such rejection since 1930.

■ In 1973, President Richard Nixon’s attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, revealed the existence of an 18½-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to Watergate.

■ In 1974, bombs exploded at a pair of pubs in Birmingham, England, killing 21 people. (Six suspects were convicted of the attack, but the convictions of the so-called “Birmingham Six” were overturned in 1991.)

■ In 1980, 87 people died in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

■ In 1991, the U.N. Security Council chose Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt to be Secretary-General.